Boulder-based natural foods grocer Alfalfa's Market is looking at the site of the vacant Safeway on South Boulder Road in Louisville as a possible location for a new store, a company spokeswoman said Monday.

Alfalfa's spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele said the company is "definitely" looking around the Front Range for a second location and that the Louisville Safeway site -- at the intersection of South Boulder Road and Centennial Drive -- is on the list.

The company, which has a single store at 1651 Broadway in Boulder, is targeting a new store for a late 2013 or early 2014 opening, and Tuitele said a lot of market study needs to happen before anything moves forward.

"We're in the very early stages," she said.

But she said it's clear that a significant contingent of Louisville residents want an Alfalfa's to replace the 55,000-square-foot Safeway, which shuttered in May 2010. The company, she said, will take that community support into account when choosing a new location.

In the weeks since a largely residential project for the site was nixed by the Louisville City Council after fierce public outcry, residents took it upon themselves to woo Alfalfa's to the city. Residents sent hundreds of cards filled with alfalfa seeds, addressed to the company's co-founder and chairman Mark Retzloff.

"We thought we'd reach out to you and let you know how much Louisville loves Alfalfa's, so we are sending you some alfalfa seeds in the hope that together something great can grow!" the note reads.

Louisville City Manager Malcolm Fleming said the neighborhood campaign has "gotten Alfalfa's attention."

"I understand they're evaluating the site along with other options," Fleming said.

He wouldn't say whether the city is directly talking to Alfalfa's at this point.

Aquiles La Grave, a resident who has been spearheading the effort to lure the grocer to the 5-acre site, said that after months of denouncing a proposed 160-unit high-end apartment complex as incompatible with the neighborhood, he and his neighbors felt they needed to be proactive about what might go there in its place.

"I didn't want myself and my neighbors walking away from this thing and not having anything to contribute," he said.

He said their effort with Alfalfa's began about a week after the City Council rejected the mixed-use project from Boulder developer Jim Loftus on June 5.

During the public hearings over Loftus' proposal, the city presented market information that concluded the Safeway site in the Village Square shopping center is no longer a viable location for a grocery store.

La Grave said that may prove true, but unlike Whole Foods or Sunflower Farmers Market, both of which have nearby stores, Alfalfa's has only one store in Boulder. He said if enough public excitement can be generated, that might make the difference in the Alfalfa's decision-making process.

Chris Koury bags groceries while working the cash register at Alfalfa's Market on Broadway in Boulder last month. The grocer is eyeing a Louisville location for its second store. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera file photo)

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